INFORMED CONSENT FOR BLOOD-TRANSFUSION AS A TRANSFUSION MEDICINE EDUCATIONAL INTERVENTION

The aim here was to determine the effectiveness of a transfusion medic ine educational intervention in a medicine core clerkship program. Thi rd-year medical students enrolled in their medicine core clerkship rot ations at tertiary care hospitals affiliated with our institution unde rwent a two-part educational intervention that incorporated a transfus ion medicine curriculum within the context of the medicolegal, ethical and educational elements of informed consent. Part one was a l-h dida ctic session on standards of practice for red blood cell transfusion. Part two was a 90-min multidisciplinary workshop on informed consent. The effectiveness of the educational intervention was analysed by an o bjective structured clinical evaluation. The student group receiving t he educational intervention scored significantly higher than in the co mparison group (65.8 +/- 9.2 vs. 54.1 +/- 10.56, P < 0.001). When stud ent scores were used to determine changes in student response patterns over time, the largest change occurred in identifying possible other options to allogeneic blood transfusion. These results suggest that a transfusion medicine curriculum using an informed consent model can be used effectively as an educational intervention in a medicine core cl erkship programme.